Don't grade homework because...equity!
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https://wtop.com/arlington/2022/04/arlington-schools-to-delay-proposed-homework-grading-changes/
Arlington schools to delay proposed homework grading changes
School officials in Arlington, Virginia, are planning to table proposed changes to the school system’s homework policy to give staff more time to evaluate the impact of some of the recommendations.
The proposed Homework Policy and Policy Implementation Procedure calls for more consistency in grading practices. It includes changes that would eliminate consequences for students who miss homework deadlines and prevent teachers from grading homework. Grades would mostly be calculated using tests.
While the proposal is scheduled to be presented to the school board for information and action at two meetings in June, a source familiar with the policy proposal said staff this summer will recommend that the proposal be moved to next year, so staff can see how the changes work in practice.
The school system is still collecting feedback from schools piloting the changes and hasn’t yet publicly disclosed its findings. The proposal was the subject of an October work session.
If passed, the changes would alter the way teachers compile grades. Critics of the plan say students won’t be motivated to complete homework assignments if they’re not graded, and suggest the lack of consequences for late submissions would result in a large amount of grading for teachers toward the end of a semester.
Conversations about how school systems handle homework stem in part from Joe Feldman’s book “Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms.”
Todd Truitt, affiliated with the group Arlington Parents for Education, said the policy change could make grading policies more consistent. There’s no clear standard for the amount of weight given to a type of assignment, he said, and things like class participation could be subject to bias.
“Grades are one of the primary ways that the school system communicates the academic performance of children to parents,” Truitt said. “That’s why grades are so important to parents, because it lets the parents know how a kid is performing.”
While many elementary schools use a standard-based grading system, which the proposal is largely based on, Truitt said the change would be more impactful at the middle and high school levels.
A school system spokesman said teachers have been able to share thoughts and observations with school representatives working on the revision efforts and have the chance to share their thoughts via the Engage online dashboard this month.
The policy proposal is expected to be brought forth for information and discussion June 9 and for potential action on June 23.
The proposed changes to the policy are available online.
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@Axtremus said in Don't grade homework because...equity!:
@Mik said in Don't grade homework because...equity!:
… SHOW THEM HOW THE FREAKING WORLD WORKS!!!!
Sometimes, people also try to CHANGE HOW THE FREAKING WORLD WORKS!!!!
Sure, change it from the top down. Let everybody into college and create disciplines where truth and intellectual rigor do not exist, having been replaced by conclusions invented and agreed upon by the idiotic cultural mobs of the day. It all works out as long as degrees and education aren't supposed to signify anything related to an ability to produce something useful to society. Which is to say, it won't work out, unless those who do produce useful things manage to take up the slack by creating technologies that do all the actual work. Where's that Ayn Rand book.
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Homework grades vs. Test grades
Not sure if @taiwan_girl can collaborate this, my observation is that American schools give more weight to homework grades and even attendance grades than Asian schools do.
My impression of most Asian public education systems is that the students get their “final grades” each year based mostly one one or two big tests that occur during the school year. Homework counts for very little (often not at all) towards the final grades.
American public schools assign non-trivial weights to homework, attendance, frequent pop-quizzes, etc., such that “tests” (“mid-terms” and “finals”) make up perhaps only a little more than half of the final grades.
Now on @jon-nyc’s comment about “grade quantify performance differentials,” that led me to think and ask: “whose performances”?
At proxied tests, students take the tests by themselves, you know you are grading the students’ performance. But homework?
Sometimes you’ve got parents to help with homework or even do the homework for some kids, sometimes you’ve got families that put the kids to work (to help with childcare or family business or whatnot) every day right after school such that the kids will never have enough time to do all the assigned homework.
Sometimes you have kids that can work on homework comfortably in their own rooms with their own computers with their own high-speed Internet connections, sometimes you have kids that have to walk or take public transportation to school/public libraries between part time jobs to get to a usable computer to do homework.
So whose performance are your quantifying when you grade the homework, really?
If the professional, practicing educators say they need more time to figure out how to factor homework into the overall grading system, I’d say please give them the benefit of the doubt and allow them more time to work out the issues.
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@Axtremus said in Don't grade homework because...equity!:
please give them the benefit of the doubt and allow them more time to work out the issues.
Isn't this what they have been doing for hundreds of years?
Yes, but that not enough time, they need just a little more.
